Explore the world-renowned Edinburgh Festival Fringe with Ewan Spence through a mix of reviews, news, and interviews.
Welcome to the Edinburgh Fringe Show.
This BAFTA-nominated podcast is a mix of news from the biggest arts festival in the world, with interviews and reviews from the world of comedy, theatre, and music; featuring over 1000 guests since we started coverage in 2005.
Just as the Edinburgh Fringe went on hiatus in 2020, so did the Fringe podcast. The Fringe returned to a full roster for 2022, as did the podcast. Following the 2022 Fringe, we explored our extensive library of guests with a weekly showcase interview from the archives.
With Fringe 2026 here, the big show is back for Season 22, bringing you the best flavour of the Fringe that we have done for twenty years.
Listen to all our shows online at edinburghfringe.thepodcastcorner.com. Follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or in your favourite podcast app, to never miss an episode.
You can also listen to the Edinburgh Fringe Show’s weekend Omnibus edition throughout August on Radio Six International and its syndication partners worldwide (check listings for details). We’re also partnered with Lothian Life where the podcast will sit alongside reviews and features from around the Fringe.
Welcome to Edinburgh, and the build-up to the Edinburgh Fringe is underway. August, with its month of shows across the Capital, is on the horizon, which means a month of podcasts to talk about them. Ewan Spence opens up the year with a prologue to set the scene, and our traditional opening song from Daniel Cainer.
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Ten years ago, a single-hander show turned up at the Fringe… Rebecca Perry with ‘Confessions Of A Redheaded Coffeshop Girl’, which starts as “what if a coffeeshop with David Attenborough?” A hook that brought you in, before the performance and the piece delightfully dragged you further… a further that included an interview on this podcast.
Ten years later, Rebecca is back at the Fringe, and ten years later, Rebecca is back on the podcast.
What is the impact of a critically acclaimed show at the Fringe on a career? Why bring a show back? And how much of a personal show can remain the same after a decade of growth and performance?
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One of the delights of the Fringe is learning something new. Theatre is the great educator, hiding it within music, within moments, and sometimes even with mime.
For me, the life and work of Sutara Gayle is one of those moments. She was a pioneering female deejay on London’s infamous reggae scene in the 1980s, which earned her a first record contract; she lived through personal tragedy that sparked the Brixton Uprising, and her work with the LGBTQAI+ community, especially within the Afro-Caribbean community, is rightly celebrated.
She is bringing some of her life to the Fringe in The Legends of Them, a unique theatrical, shared spiritual experience. An ethralling force, I spoke to her ahead of the show arriving in Edinburgh.
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One of the key returns for many acts and troupes from the Fringe is to come away with an award. There’s an insane amount of competition to win one, but they can set the tone of your career for the following years.
But what does it take to manage and run one of the awards?
The ISH Edinburgh Comedy Awards started in the years after Covid-19, and brought a fresh look at the comedy scene across the Fringe. With over 700 shows to see, it’s a vast undertaking to see, to judge, and to decide. On the four awards – best show, best newcomer, best tech, and panel prize
I decided to find out more, and spoke to ISH’s Sarah Bowles.
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There are so many puns available to me from today’s show. “The World’s Greatest Lover” is a new musical debuting at the Fringe, but with international ambitions beyond Pleasance One.
Writers Julien Salvia and Ludovic-Alexandre Vidal bring the titular lovers from the annals of history. Romeo, Casanova, Cyrano de Bergerac, the Marquis de Sade and MC Saint Valentine to the Fringe stage. Not only is this a closer look at five different types of love, it’s also a chance for some great new pop standards.
Julien and Ludo, on a rather long-distance call from Australia, talk about how they cho
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Kinder is an excellent example of a show taking risks at the Fringe, both for the production and the audience.
There are hints on what to expect on paper – a story of a Drag Queen preparing a “comedy roast” but finding out with an hour to go, it’s actually a booking for a children’s story time show. In that short liminal space, there is some theatrical magic that lifts the story to something powerful, reflective, and vitally important.
It’s the Fringe at its best. I caught up with the team behind the show – producer and performer Ryan Stewart and director Tiah Bullock to find out more.
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Accomplished jazz trumpeter Jay Phelps debuts at the Fringe this year with Miles. It’s a look back on the life of Jazz virtuoso Miles Davis in general, and the creation of the album “Kind Of Blue” in particular.
It mixes in many disciplines, including the acting talents of Benjamin Akintuyos as Davis, the music of the album, and Phelps’ music talents on the trumpet. Not only that, but Phelps has 20 years of music and performance in his CV, but this is his first move into acting.
I caught up with Jay earlier today to talk about the impact and relevance of Kind of Blue, the influence it has had on his life, and what it’s like to meet your hero on stage.
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Jay Saunders and Nick Cheng are from Project Comedy; a part of Project Recce, which helps Military Veterans and Service Leavers to move from military service to civilian employment.
As they describe it, “military humour is more than just entertainment—it’s a survival tool. It forges camaraderie, boosts morale, and keeps teams strong in the toughest conditions. Now, through Project COMEDY, veterans can harness that same power of humour to improve their well-being, master new skills, and stand out in civilian careers.”
This is the first year that the Project Comedy team has brought shows to Edinburgh. The Fringe can offer more, so I listen to Jay and Nick as they talk about the power of healing that the Fringe can offer, how the Fringe can help introduce the Project to a broader audience, and how this will help build the project for the future.
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As week 2 starts here in Edinburgh, let’s welcome Narin Oz to the pod. Returning to the Fringe with her fourth show, Inner Child(ish) sees Oz looking to reconnect with her titular inner child … through the medium of the Tom Hanks motion picture Castaway.
Her inner child misbehaves, breaks rules, and flips reality around. Behind all this is Narin learning to live in a world of neurotypical people surrounding her neurodiversity. Why live in reality when you can skip over, under, around, and through it?
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